My first macro here

[Morten Romild]

Taken last summer
Hope you like
Iso 200
F11
1/250
Flash
Canon 50D
Canon 100 2.5 macro

[Julie Kenward]

Morten, that is a pretty cool first post to the Macro forum! I've looked at this for a while now and every time I thought about a different suggestion to make I'd end up changing my mind because you'd lose the impact of those eyeballs staring at us like he has on a pair of Harry Potter glasses!

With the composition the way it is, you get this wide sense of his antenna and that's pretty cool - but you've got more plant than insect here so I'm not sure the crop is as strong as it could have been. You did get all the front legs, the antenna, and the face in the frame (not all that easy to do) and the focus is certainly where it needs to be - on his eyes and hungry little tongue. If it weren't for the antenna I'd say go with a close vertical crop next time so you could get more of his body in the frame (it does feel a bit chopped off at the top). And I would also normally suggest getting lower and coming head on at the bug with the camera but I really love that "looking up" look you captured! Let's see what all the bug people have to say!

Thanks for sharing (TFS)...we look forward to seeing more of your images!

[Ken Childs]

Morten, are those black spots on the eyes for real? Those "pupils" look really cool but to me they don't look natural. Since I have no experience with the butterflies of Denmark, I don't know what to think. :)

I think a tighter crop might be the way to go. Try cropping the left and right just outside of the antennae and crop the bottom just below the tip of the proboscis.

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Morten, welcome to the Macro forum! I would probably crop it to a tight vertical with the bottom edge just below the proboscis. Yeah, that means cutting off the antennae, but I don't mind that because the antennae are OOF anyway and those cool eyes are the real focus of the image. Nice details and colors.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Morten, welcome to the macro gallery and cool first post. Nice job getting the main parts like the eyes and his straw in focus. I also think this could be a vertical crop. Nice work.

[Morten Romild]

@ken Childs: They are for real, but I dont know if its pupils of just black spots, this is the same spieces.


Thank for the comments, I think its a tighter crop I will go for.

[Vida van der Walt]

Hi Morten. Lovely colours and nice detail. A shot like this with the long horizontal line formed by the antennae is very difficult to compose perfectly. I agree with Christopher and Mike on the vertical crop. Ken, the black spots in the eyes are natural.:)

[Ken Childs]

@ken Childs: They are for real, but I dont know if its pupils of just black spots, this is the same spieces.

Thanks for the reply.

That is really unusual. They are definitely spots and I can't think of any reason they would develop something that would bring attention to their eyes.

[Anita Bower]

This little critter looks like it is wearing big glasses, which delights me. Welcome to this forum. You will get helpful and kind critiques here.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Morten,
Can't add much to the above comments but would also go with the crop.